Nothing can stop the Furious. “Furious 7,” the latest entry in Universal Studios’ supercharged car movie franchise, opens this week to insane expectations that it could very well leave in the dust. A nine-figure opening week...

NEW YORK — A day after Trevor Noah was declared the new host of “The Daily Show,” complete with the blessing of the exiting Jon Stewart, graphic tweets targeting women, Jews and victims of the Ebola virus are causing a social medi...

MOST RECENT STORIES

Art museums

One of the most interesting things about art is that it can be tied tightly to time, but also transcend it. The exhibit “Raku: The Cosmos in a Tea Bowl,” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art through June 7, is a perfect example of this flux. The show boasts nearly 100 ceramic objects spanning five centuries from a tradition that remains vibrant today in Japan and is revered by art lovers around the globe. “Ceramics is a...

Sports TV

Ranking top 10 sports events March 30-April 5 you won’t want to miss: NO. 1: COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT FINAL FOUR: DUKE vs. MICHIGAN STATE KENTUCKY vs. WISCONSIN Details/TV: At Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Saturday, 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.: A one, a one, a one and ... a seven? Michigan State’s belated RSVP to the Final Four as the second team out of the Big Ten to quality could have taken a lot of college...

Music

After 44 years, Jethro Tull mastermind Ian Anderson broke up the band at the end of 2011. However, many of his legions of fans want a reunion, especially with guitarist Martin Barre, who was with the 67-year-old Anderson since late 1968, recording every Jethro Tull album since the eclectic group’s second album, “Stand Up” in 1969 through its final studio album, “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album” in 2003. Of this, Anderson says no way. “I...

By Steve Smith
|4 days ago

Movies & TV

MEXICO CITY — The combination of James Bond espionage and Mexico’s crime and chaos always promised to be a sizzling cocktail. But the stories emerging out of the filming of “Spectre” in the Mexican capital have dramas worthy of a spy flick themselves. The real-life plots spin from corporate hacking to dictators to government bribes to narco police. But it is not all scandal. The iconic British agent has also brought his trademark glamorous women and...

By Ioan Grillo, GlobalPost
|4 days ago

Orchestral music

LOS ANGELES - The contract for Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel has been extended through the 2021-22 season, the philharmonic association board announced today. Dudamel’s original contract as music director was five years, starting in 2009-10. That was extended in 2011 to run through the 2018-19. His new contract will add the title of artistic director. Today’s announcement was made from Tokyo during the orchestra’s first tour of Asia under...

City News Service
|4 days ago

Movie Reviews

Mad men, prophets, messiahs in the desert — television is turning its attention to religion in a dramatic way, and, undoubtedly, praying for ratings. National Geographic Channel’s “Killing Jesus” — based on the book by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard — which debuts Palm Sunday (March 29), takes a somewhat historic look at the life of the Christian Savior, with Lebanese actor Haaz Sleiman, a Muslim, in the title role.

Movie Reviews

Hollywood and Scientology have often collided, but never quite as explosively as they do in “Going Clear,” the revealing documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney. The film, airing March 29 on HBO, is based on Lawrence Wright’s 2013 best-seller “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief,” which looks at the belief system founded by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, with its most famous adherents being Tom Cruise and...

Movies & TV

“Jauja” makes no sense — but that’s not because we mere viewers are dumb. Director and co-writer Lisandro Alonso reportedly doesn’t know what his films are about either. Of course, he could just be messing with us. And like the surreal short stories of fellow Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, Alonso’s puzzling pictures are rich with haunting images and intriguing inferences. This one takes place in 1870s Patagonia (though it’s real...

Movies & TV

BANGKOK — Behold the trailer for “No Escape,” a tale of one American family’s struggle to survive against faceless Southeast Asian hordes. Have you watched it yet? Good. So now you know the plot: A dad played by Owen Wilson naively relocates his wife and kids to the Asian tropics. Big mistake! The savages revolt and start shooting at white people from helicopters. It’s essentially a xenophobic nightmare brought to life with A-list...

By Patrick Winn, GlobalPost
|4 days ago

Museums

SAN MARINO >> The Huntington’s new $68 million entrance complex, 10 years in the making, will showcase nearly 9 acres of “wow factor” when it opens April 4. The sheer size of the facilities is more than twice the amount of acreage railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington had in his early 1900s Beaux-Arts residence, garage and library — the vast ground’s original buildings. The new Steven S. Koblik Education and Visitor Center will replace...